He Likes Me, He Likes Me Not
by BakaNekoSan
Summary: Ten year old Naruto is completely alone in the world, that is, until Sasuke comes along one day to keep him company. Thing is Naruto doesn't want to let him go now. A fluffy oneshot between Naruto and Sasuke.


**Ok! I've fixed the parts that I found errors with! (it was driving me nuts!)**

**Again with the warning:**

**_CONTAINS FLUFF BETWEEN BOYS!_**

**Namely Naruto and Sasuke of course! Just to let you know, the two of them are the age of ten, _but it's not bad_! I swear on my life! **

**Enjoy peeps!**

**He Likes Me, He Likes Me Not**

The class of little girls were out in the flower fields learning how to arrange the small budding blooms into pretty bouquets. They giggled with one another while picking their choice of flower from its roots.

A young blonde of ten sat a ways away atop of a hill overlooking the field. He sat gloomily watching the group of girls go crazy with putting the flowers together since he had nothing better to do.

A sigh was heaved out from within his chest, but no one was around to ask him what was bothering him. Even if there had been anyone around, they most likely _wouldn't_ ask. No one seemed to care about how he felt and avoided him best they could. There was only one question he wished to ask about this: _why_?

But no matter how he asked, again, everyone avoided him and just walked on by.

All he wanted was to feel accepted. Was that too much to ask of anyone?

He felt something suddenly run down his cheeks. When he wiped them with a tightened fist he found tear stains on them. Had he been crying? Apparently so, but he hadn't noticed that his blue eyes had filled themselves with tears.

"Why are you crying?" said a random voice from the boy's left.

He turned to see another boy his age standing a few feet away, hands in pockets. It was the ever famous, amongst the girls especially, Uchiha Sasuke. As if he didn't hear enough about him, now he had to be graced by his presence.

"No, I am _not_ crying!" the blonde scoffed.

The Uchiha bent over to look him in the face and spoke bluntly, "You're bad at lying, Naruto."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. So what if he was a bad liar? It wasn't like he practiced it or anything.

A thought hit him. Was there such a thing as a _good_ liar? He found this to be a good question and wanted to know the answer. The only one around was Sasuke so he might as well ask him.

"So, I'm a bad liar?"

Sasuke gave him a look. The kind that said _duh_!

"If there's a bad liar, then is there a good liar?"

This seemed to confuse the Uchiha, for his mouth opened to respond, but he stopped.

Naruto smiled softly. Sasuke wasn't answering because he was ignoring him. No. He wasn't answering him because he didn't know the answer to his question. He was giving him the attention that no one else bothered giving.

Silence never sounded so sweet.

"That's a stupid question! Of course there's no such thing as a good liar!"

Sasuke gave off an attitude as he spoke that said he knew everything; therefore, there was no such thing as a good liar as he had voiced.

Naruto whipped around to sit facing him.

"It is _not_ a stupid question!!!"

Sasuke crossed his arms.

"Yes it _is_!"

"Well, what if you're good at lying?! That means you're a _good liar_!!!"

Naruto paused. He had found the answer to his question and had no help with getting it! For once he felt very proud of himself.

He looked at Sasuke again. He seemed to be disgruntled about not coming to a conclusion like Naruto had and hugged his knees.

"Well, that doesn't make them _good_, so I'm still right."

Naruto felt anxious when noticing the Uchiha climbing to his feet. Was he leaving? He just got there!

"Hey! Where are you going?!" he spoke in a panic. He didn't want to be alone again. The company was… nice.

Naruto had never talked to Sasuke. He was afraid that he would avoid him like everyone else so instead of talking with him, he decided to… avoid him. Something he didn't like having others doing to him, and yet, he did it to the one person he really wanted to be friends with, and now that they had actually spoken with another Naruto didn't want him to leave.

"I'm going home."

Sasuke looked to be in an ill mood.

Naruto thought that he possibly made him mad somehow.

"D-don't go home!"

Sasuke's steps came to a halt and he turned to face Naruto from about ten feet away.

"Why shouldn't I?! Are you going to _make_ me stay?!"

Naruto felt helpless. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at him and looked a bit ticked off with him. Of course he wasn't going to _make_ Sasuke stay; it would have been nice though if he _would_ stay with Naruto and had done so because he _wanted_ to.

"No… I'm not going to make you stay… I just don't want to be alone again."

His nose had a prickling sensation rush through it. This gave him warning that he was about to cry so he turned away from Sasuke to hide his embarrassment. He already hated the fact that the other boy had seen him crying earlier and didn't want him to see that again. He might call Naruto a crybaby if he did.

It was silent for a moment. Seconds felt like decades to Naruto. The anxiety was getting to him. Was the Uchiha still standing there? He wouldn't have noticed if he left, but he didn't want to turn and see; his cheeks were wet with many tears that already fell from his eyes. He really didn't want to lose the one and only person that ever bothered to talk to him.

Realizing that that was the cause of his tears, he swiftly spun around and shouted, "SASUKE, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"

A short sob choked him afterwards and the tears were like rain on his cheeks. He brought up his quivering hands to his face, trying hard, to wipe his eyes dry. His nose sniffled uncontrollably, trying to let him breathe, but at the same time, made it hard for him to do so. He took a quick intake of breath and ended up sobbing again. He covered his mouth thinking that maybe that would help deafen the sound. It was a horrible sound after all.

A pair of arms lightly wrapped around him and pulled him into a warm hug. Naruto had never experienced such a nice embrace before. He was quick to twisting his own arms around the other's back and held a tight grip on the clothing.

"I'm not going to _leave _you. I'm just going home."

Sasuke's voice was soft and kind, unlike the tones he had made it before when talking with him.

Naruto plunged his face to the other's chest and continued crying into it. He had never imagined how good it felt to have someone else there for him, to sit with, to talk with, to cry with… Well, he didn't know if Sasuke was crying. Most likely not, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that he was there, comforting him.

"Hey! Stop crying you, crybaby! I've gotta go home!"

Sasuke lightly pulled Naruto's arms from around him and forced them back at his side; still holding the wrists, he looked Naruto in the face. He was still crying.

"Geez…" He sighed lightly. Not from aggravation. It was more like he didn't know what to do and sighing was all he _could_ do. "Why are you crying? Are you a baby or what?"

Naruto sniffled in response. He glared at the Uchiha and pulled his wrists from the grip Sasuke had on them. Why was he crying, he wanted to know?

"YOU CALLED ME A CRYBABY!!!"

Of all things that could have happened, he had to call Naruto a crybaby. That was the last thing he wanted to be called.

"I DON'T LIKE BEING MADE FUN OF JUST BECAUSE I CRY SOMETIMES!!!"

He saw Sasuke roll his eyes and in response to it he stamped his feet in frustration.

"Quit being mean to me!" he demanded.

Sasuke crossed his arms again. It was as if he didn't care that Naruto was a crybaby or that he was being mean about it.

"If it'll make you feel better," he lowered his eyes to the ground, "about being alone, then I'll play with you."

Something ran through Naruto's body. He felt like crying again, but not out of grief for once.

Naruto quickly looked up in Sasuke's face. Had he really just offered to spend time with him? This made the blonde bounce up and down in excitement, rapidly repeating, "REALLY?! REALLY?! REALLY?!" over and over. He couldn't help it. This was the first time anyone had ever offered to do anything with him. It made him ecstatic.

"Sure."

Naruto continued to hop around, happily chattering to himself. His _first_ friend! He couldn't believe it!

"Do you want to come over to my house?"

Again a rush of excitement filled the blonde. Now Sasuke was inviting him to his house! He'd never been in someone else's home before. Another first.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" He nodded his head quickly as if there was a short time limit in which he would be able to answer.

Sasuke gave him a worried look. Well, maybe not a worried look for Naruto in general, more like a worried look for himself.

"Um, you do know where I live, right?"

There was a chorus of yeahs shortly after the question.

"Ok, well, I'm going home then… You can come over whenever you want to."

Naruto smiled so widely that it took the form of a grin. A true smile. He then scurried up to the Uchiha so they stood just in front of one another. He paused to look him in the eye.

Sasuke had really dark eyes.

Then he did something completely random. To him it wasn't random, but Sasuke probably thought it was. He stretched his arms out and collapsed against the other boy, tightly squeezing him into a hug.

"Thank you!"

Sasuke let Naruto hug him, but didn't return it.

"For… what?" his voice was low; almost less than a whisper.

"For being my friend!"

Naruto gave him one last, hard squeeze before releasing him. He found that he really liked hugs. They had a nice feel. Especially the ones from Sasuke.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!"

The blonde swiftly turned around to head for his own house. If he had given a good look at Sasuke before leaving then he would have seen the light tint of pink that shaded his face; but of course he hadn't looked, so there was nothing to be said about it.

"SASUKE-KUN!" screamed two voices in unison. They belonged to two girls and Naruto recognized them right away. The two girls that always talked about Sasuke when he wasn't around. The two girls that had made him feel envious of the Uchiha before talking with him. The two girls whose names were Sakura and Ino.

He turned so quickly to them calling Sasuke's name that he nearly fell over.

"We picked flowers for you, Sasuke-kun!" spoke the blonde.

"Yeah… we hope you like them…" The other blushed.

Naruto fumed. He didn't know why he felt angry with the girls, but he did. Well, he had just made a bond with Sasuke and now that the Uchiha's attention was focused on someone other than Naruto, he felt jealous.

The two girls produced a flower from behind their back and let Sasuke take them from their hands.

"Ow!"

Sasuke quickly took both flowers in one hand while lightly shaking the other.

The flowers they had given Sasuke were roses and hadn't been snipped of their thorns. Sakura and Ino gasped as if they had killed a rabbit and talked in the same way.

"I'M SO SORRY, SASUKE-KUN!!!" cried the pink-haired girl.

"WE'LL TAKE THE THORNS OFF RIGHT AWAY!!!" the other said frantically as they both tried to take back the roses.

Sasuke wouldn't give them back.

"They're fine with thorns. I'll just be careful." He sucked on the finger that he had pricked on the thorns, holding the two roses more carefully in the uninjured hand.

The two girls blushed and ran off giggling.

Naruto felt like running over, snatching the roses from Sasuke and stomping them into the dirt. But he refrained from doing so. It would make Sasuke mad if he did that and he would rather do anything than get his new friend mad at him.

He watched as Sasuke walked off, with roses still in hand, until he had gone so far that he couldn't see him anymore.

What if Sasuke actually _liked_ one of those girls? What if he started spending time with them?! Then _he_ wouldn't have time to spend with the Uchiha because _he _was spending it all with _them_!

Naruto wasn't going to lose his new friend to a couple of girls and their stupid flowers!

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The blonde boy lightly knocked on the door of the Uchiha residence that Sasuke lived in. A woman answered the door and looked down at him.

"Oh, you must be Naruto!"

Her smile was warm and friendly.

Sasuke must have told his mother, at least that's who Naruto assumed she was, about him coming sometime today.

"Come on in! I'll get Sasuke while you wait." She cleared the way for Naruto to enter and closed the door behind him.

"Do you want anything while you're waiting for my son?"

Sasuke was lucky to have her as his mom. She was extremely nice to him even though all the other adults seemed to hate him. Maybe she influenced Sasuke in the kindness department since he was the only one to actually talk to Naruto.

"Um, no thank you…"

He was rather nervous being in someone else's house, but Sasuke's mom treated him all the same.

"Oh, don't be silly! I've made cookies for the two of you to eat! Go in the kitchen and you'll see them!"

Home-made cookies?! Made by a mom?! He was really being treated!

"Thank you!" he cheered as he ran in the direction she pointed him to.

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By the time Sasuke made his entrance to the kitchen Naruto had already eaten over half the cookies. There had recently been a total of two dozen, but now there was only six left.

Naruto noticed Sasuke after he finished off the cookie he was previously eating. What he didn't notice was the look of horror on his face.

"Hello, Sasuke!"

"YOU ATE ALL THE COOKIES, YOU PIG!!!"

That was Sasuke's words of greetings to Naruto. Not a _hello, Naruto_ or even a _how are you, Naruto_, but a _you ate all the cookies, you pig_… he could have at least said his name.

"But I _didn't_ eat _all_ of them!" he raised the large plate to a slanting position so the Uchiha could see that there were indeed more cookies. "There's six left!"

"OUT OF _TWO _DOZEN?!"

Naruto blinked. He didn't really now how to respond to that, so he asked, "Sasuke? What does a _two dozen_ mean, and what does it have to do with cookies?"

Sasuke slapped his forehead. The blonde watched him questioningly. He had never seen someone hit themselves on purpose before like the Uchiha had done.

"Naruto… two dozen is a number that happens to be twenty four… and you ate eighteen!!!" he tried to put a hint of emphasis on the words: two dozen, number, twenty four, ate, and eighteen so that the blonde would get it.

Naruto didn't, but acted as if he understood. He didn't understand math.

"Oh, ok…"

The Uchiha sat at the table across from Naruto and began to eat one of the cookies left before the blonde decided he wanted the rest for himself.

"Um… Sasuke?"

The dark-haired boy looked up.

"I brought you something…"

He picked up an item that sat beside him and forced it across the table and into the Uchiha's face.

It was a daisy.

"Y-you're giving me a daisy?"

Naruto pushed the flower into Sasuke's hands. After a few seconds of silence the Uchiha tried again.

"Why are you giving me a daisy?" his voice was soft as a whisper like it was the night before.

"Because! Daisies don't have thorns!"

Sasuke had a perplexed look upon his face.

"Daisies don't have thorns?"

Naruto quickly nodded. It wasn't hard to get, at least not as hard as Sasuke's two dozen cookies.

"Yeah, those mean flowers that those girls gave you had thorns all over and they bit you with them! I thought you'd like to have a nice flower if you had to have any! And _this one_ doesn't have thorns so it won't be mean to you! And it's really pretty!"

Naruto hadn't noticed the blush that stained Sasuke's face, or that he had gotten up, and made his way around the table to him until he was staring him in the face.

"But _why _are you giving me a flower?! Only girls do that!"

Really? No one had ever told Naruto that girls did one thing and guys did another. Truth was that he didn't see much of a difference between girls and guys. There was only a Naruto and everyone else in his life. That was what he grew up believing. But something had changed after ten years of his life. A good change. There was no longer just Naruto and everyone else. Now there was Naruto, and Sasuke. No one else mattered as long as Sasuke was there.

He grinned. "I gave it to you because I _like_ you!"

Sasuke took a step back, face very red and very noticeable.

"But, _boys_ don't like _boys_! They like _girls_! Same goes for girls! They don't _like_ one another!"

Again. No one ever told Naruto that, so of course it confused him. Sure he had seen many girl and boy couples throughout Konoha, but what Sasuke said wasn't true. He had seen many boy-boy couples and girl-girl couples too.

"Then what about me? Am I not a boy? Just because I like you, does that mean I'm a girl?"

Again, Naruto _really_ didn't know the difference between boys and girls, literally. How could he if he's only ten and has no parents? No one would tell him if he asked. Plus he hadn't discovered the magazine shop that had many things on girls inside.

He liked Sasuke because he was the only person to see him as another human being, other than Sasuke's mom. Was it wrong to like him because of this?

"No! You're a _boy_! A _**boy**_! You _can't _like me because _I'm_ a boy!"

Sasuke's face seemed to get redder as the conversation progressed.

"What's wrong with a boy liking another boy?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side giving the Uchiha a quizzical look.

The boy flushed. He didn't know the answer.

As Naruto thought. Sasuke always got the top grades in school and all the girls talked about how cool and smart he was. If only they could see him now they'd know how smart he was. He might now all the ninja rules, or how to throw a kunai knife and hit the target, or how to summon his chakra better than anyone else. He just didn't know any of the answers to the important questions in life.

While the Uchiha was busy standing there looking perplexed, Naruto stood up and gently pressed his lips against Sasuke's. Just like he saw all the couples, girl-boy, boy-boy, girl-girl, it didn't matter; they all did it the same way.

He pulled away from Sasuke. The Uchiha's face was frozen in embarrassment.

"You don't like me do you…?"

Naruto sat back down and felt the prickling in his nose. His stomach felt as if butterflies were flapping around inside and made him want to throw up. It was a very lonely feeling. A feeling he was too familiar with.

The tears streamed down his face silently. They were hot on his even hotter cheeks.

He didn't sob, and yet, this was the worst he had ever felt, so why didn't he sob? Maybe the last thread that held his emotions together had just snapped and he couldn't care enough to sob. But then why was he crying? Some part of him seemed to care.

A warm hand brushed across one of his cheeks, wiping away the tears as it went.

Naruto slowly tilted his head up to look Sasuke in the face. He no longer looked embarrassed, but the blush was still filling color into his cheeks.

"No… I do like you…"

Sasuke's voice was really hard to hear. He had gone into whisper mode again, but that wasn't the point. Naruto heard it perfectly.

The blonde jumped up and threw his arms around the Uchiha's neck, lightly pressing his body against the others.

Sasuke let his arms intertwine behind Naruto's back and just held him there.

"Sasuke! How were the cookies?!"

Sasuke's mother quickly appeared through the kitchen door.

Naruto stood by the sink and looked over his shoulder to Sasuke, who was clear across the room admiring his mom's china set displayed in the cupboard.

"Oh!" Sasuke faked his surprise. "They were good, mom!"

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Naruto strolled casually by the Uchiha, happily humming as they walked down the dirt path to eat lunch at the ramen bar, Sasuke said it was his treat!

He and Sasuke halted when Sakura and Ino appeared in their line of vision.

The two giggled as they walked up to Sasuke, another set of roses in their hands.

"We brought you more roses, Sasuke-kun!" They spoke simultaneously.

Naruto felt his blood boil at this.

"Sorry, but I can't take them."

He glanced surprisingly at Sasuke. Just the other day he had taken them without a complaint. What made today any different?

The two girls caught on to this as well.

"But we cut the thorns off this time!" The blonde showed the stem of the rose to the Uchiha. As she had indicated, the thorns had been removed.

"Sorry, but all I'll take right now is daisies."

The blonde boy blushed. That was the flower _he_ had given the Uchiha.

The pink-haired girl looked depressed. "But roses are so romantic and pretty!"

Naruto watched Sasuke from a side glance. She did have a point. If he were given the choice of which flower was the prettiest or most romantic he would have to say the rose. He just didn't like the thorns. They hurt too much.

The Uchiha smiled to them as if pitying them.

"You're both silly. It isn't whether or not the flower has thorns, or if it's the prettiest or more romantic compared to others." He looked at Naruto before continuing, "Do you really want to know what makes the flower special?"

The two nodded quickly.

Naruto waited just as anxiously. What made the flower special? It's just a flower after all. How exactly did it symbolize importance?

"What makes a flower special isn't the flower at all."

Naruto's mind was spinning. What was Sasuke saying? Didn't he _just_ say that the flower was indeed special?

Sasuke's voice lowered a few octaves and sounded sweet when speaking.

"It's the person giving it to you."

Everything seemed to stop for Naruto. He looked at Sasuke a little surprised. He was _special_ to Sasuke?

He felt Sasuke's hand grasp a light hold on his own, slowly lacing their fingers together. He pulled Naruto forward and past Sakura and Ino, who looked as if the sight was a horror film.

Sasuke paid this no heed and continued holding Naruto's hand.

"So, what type of ramen are you going to get?" he paused a moment, "Hey! Are you crying again?!"

Naruto smiled. Yes, he was crying, but he wasn't sad, he was really happy. After all this time, he thought that Sasuke really didn't know anything of importance. He had been proven wrong by the Uchiha… for once. But being wrong in this kind of way didn't make him feel like an idiot. If he were ever to be wrong again, and he knew he would, then he'd want to be wrong against Sasuke's words; no one else's.

"Listen, I'm not going to pay for your ramen if you keep making that weird face!"

"I am _not_ making a weird face!"

**Yay! It's done! I had fun with this little story! I hope you did too!**

**Forever the BakaNekoSan :3**


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